armar

Forms

armar (first-person singular present armo, first-person singular preterite armei, past participle armado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin armō (“to arm, equip”), written Old Galician-Portuguese armar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Machado gives the Latin verb the senses “arm”, “fit out a ship”, “arm a fortress” and “provide”, all of which reappear in Portuguese.^[4]

The same Latin verb is Galician armar, Spanish armar, Catalan armar, French armer, Italian armare and Romanian arma.^[5][6][1]

The Latin verb is formed from arma (“arms, weapons”).^[7][1] Medieval Latin also used it for knighting someone by handing him his arms, a sense found in Old Galician-Portuguese too.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][3] Machado's first record is a cantiga of Afonso X about a man who fled the war in fear and went back to his land armar manto, literally “to put on a cloak”; the glossaries read it as dressing up richly, perhaps to cover his cowardice, and mark the reading as uncertain.^[4][10][9] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have a sultan who has his men armed, and crossbows made ready (ouv'a baesta armada “he had the crossbow cocked”); a cantiga d'amigo speaks of the king fitting out a boat (U el-rei arma o barco).^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The medieval senses are arming and equipping men, ships and crossbows, and in the Crónica Troiana knighting.^[9] Morais (1789) lists armar cavaleiro “to knight”, with the ceremony of the order, and the figurative uses “to stir up” (a lawsuit, a quarrel), “to lay” (snares, traps) and armar às aves “to set snares for birds”; used intransitively it meant “to suit”, as in este traje não me arma “this dress does not suit me”.^[11] Bluteau's book of synonyms gives “enlist soldiers” and “prepare to resist the enemy”.^[12]

From making a weapon ready the verb passed to any device, structure or plan: setting a trap or a camera, putting up a tent or a hammock, plotting a scheme or causing a fuss.^[2][1] Fabric that “arms well” hangs with body.^[2] In Portugal armar-se em is to give oneself airs.^[2][1] In Rio Grande do Sul it is also used for rolling a cigarette and preparing mate.^[13]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records; a cantiga of Afonso X has armar manto.^[2][3][4]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use the verb of arming men and cocking crossbows.^[9]
• 14th century – first records of the derivatives armação and armadilha.^[14]
• 1496 – the earliest record in the CTA prose corpus, the História de mui nobre Vespasiano.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin armo.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds armada cousa “an armed thing”.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais records armar cavaleiro, armar às aves and the sense “to suit”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To arm; to supply with weapons;^[2][18][1] (reflexive) to arm oneself: Armaram-se de paus e pedras.^[2][18][1]
2. To put armour on; to protect with defensive arms.^[2][18]
3. To prepare (a country, a force) for war.^[2][19]
4. (figurative, reflexive) To forearm oneself, to take precautions.^[2]
5. To cock (a firearm).^[2]
6. To set (a trap, a device, an alarm) ready to work.^[2][1]
7. To put up, to assemble (a tent, a hammock, a structure).^[2][1]
8. To fit out, to equip (a ship).^[20][19]
9. (figurative) To devise, to plot;^[2][19] (informal) to cause (trouble, a scene).^[2][19]
10. (intransitive, of fabric or clothes) To hang well, to have body.^[2]
11. (Portugal, informal, reflexive) armar-se em: to give oneself airs as, to pose as.^[2][1]

Word family

• armação
• armadilha
• armado
• armador
• desarmar
• rearmar

Related words

• arma
• armadura
• armamento
• Latin armo
• Spanish armar

Usage notes

Armar cavaleiro “to knight” keeps the medieval sense.^[11][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. armar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. armar
4. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. armar
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. armare
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. armare
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. armō
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. armare
9. ^ a b c d e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. armar
10. ^ a b Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. armar
11. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 113
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. armar
13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. armar
14. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. arma
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. armar
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. armar
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. armar
18. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. armar
19. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. armar
20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 903